Perrie Edwards has opened up about her past relationships, admitting she once believed “toxic” behaviour was normal before finding stability with her fiancé, footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The Little Mix star, 32, discussed love, heartbreak and how her perspective has changed during an appearance on Paul C. Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast.
Discussing her relationship with ex Zayn Malik, Edwards spoke candidly about how her first relationship shaped her view of romance.
“I think definitely at the time I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal,” she began.
“Because it was my first relationship, first love. I was like, ‘Oh, this is how it's supposed to feel. It's supposed to feel a little bit toxic in some ways. This is probably normal, right?’”
The singer dated Malik during the height of their fame after the pair competed on The X Factor in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
The couple then got engaged in 2013 before their split two years later in 2015, amid reports she had been dumped by text message and speculation he’d been unfaithful.
When asked if Malik was her first love, she responded: “Nothing like this, we were engaged to be married so clearly we had feelings for each other but I think at that age we thought, 'this is it', but when I look back now, I was so young. How was I to know that was it? Because I didn't know any different.”
Edwards admitted the experience left her reluctant to date again, but that changed when she met Oxlade-Chamberlain, whom she welcomed son, Axel, in 2021 with.
She opened up: “And then when I became single, I was almost thinking, like, ‘I never, ever want to go through that again’. I didn't even want to meet anybody. I was like, ‘that's me done’. I don't think I could bear that pain....
“... But now, reflecting back, I'm thinking, ‘oh, that probably wasn't good’. And I've noticed it a lot. Like in the start of the relationship, I would handle things differently with Alex and he'd come at it with such a level head that it would throw me.”
Her view changed after meeting Oxlade-Chamberlain, who she described as “very mature” and “laid back”. She praised the footballer’s calm and steady nature, contrasting it with what she had come to expect.
Edwards shared: “Like, little things might happen, and I'd think, ‘Oh, now he's going to kick off, he's not going to like this.’ And I'd be like, ‘Oh, this happened.’
“And he'd be like, ‘Alright’ and it would throw me. He's very mature. He's very laid back. He's very level-headed. He's not the type to get mad or get angry or get funny about things.”
Learning to communicate openly, she said, has also been central to their relationship.
Recalling how an ex contacted her when she started dating Oxlade-Chamberlain, she shared: “My ex reached out and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I’d only been with Alex like a year and a half, two years. And I felt a bit uncomfortable about it.
“And I remember sweating and panicking, thinking, ‘I've got to tell him that obviously I've spoken to him.’ And I would be terrified... And he was like, ‘Okay, well, I really appreciate you telling me, thank you for letting me know. That's fine. Like, hopefully he doesn't contact you again.’
“And I was thinking, ‘Okay, cool. That's it.’”
Malik went on to date supermodel Gigi Hadid following their split and the former couple, who split in 2021 after welcoming daughter, Khai, in 2020.
When asked what real love feels like, Edwards described it as “safe” and “unproblematic”.
“It's not that horrible pit in your stomach that you need to, like, get the love,” she added. “It doesn't feel that way. It's like you just accept it because it just comes, if that makes sense... It might sound boring to some, but it's just so unproblematic.”
Edwards is preparing to release her debut solo album later this year, her first since Little Mix went on hiatus in 2022.
